I will post some of my faves over a few posts. Here are some vintage die-cuts, scottish "flag" cards, and a Stanley Matthews oval card.

thescooper

11-26-2011, 11:49 AM

love the Sir Stanley Matthews card.How old is it?

Ray Van

11-26-2011, 03:05 PM

1935 CARRERAS LTD. POPULAR PERSONALITIES STANLEY MATTHEWS #65

Here's the back.

thescooper

11-26-2011, 07:43 PM

beautiful card. Should be able to pick that one up easy enough,not an impossible card eh?

Copa7

12-08-2011, 08:44 AM

Hi

Nice vintage soccer stuff. Would like to see more of the flags - and closer up.

Do you have a checklist ?

cheers

Ray Van

12-10-2011, 12:34 PM

Sorry, no checklist. I only have 5 cards ... here are the other 3 close up and also a picture of the backs. Based on research of the players I have, I believe these are from the mid-1930's.

Ray Van

12-10-2011, 12:48 PM

Stop me when you've seen enough! :)

European Cup Final Cigar Band from 1968.
Sir Matt Busby cards from when he was a player in the 1930's.
Manchester United Pattreiouex team card from 1927.
Uncut mini-sheets of 4 cards (each sheet is 3.5"x5.5") from "Boys' Magazine" (1920's?).

Ray Van

12-10-2011, 01:03 PM

Very unique stickers that I believe are from the 1960's based on the soccer ball depicted.

Collect Equity

12-13-2011, 10:08 PM

Very cool vintage soccer cards. Keep 'em coming!

On a side note, any idea, if you were to do a type collection, kind of like people do in baseball cards, how many sets might there be for 1900-1920?

Ray Van

06-27-2012, 08:13 PM

Murray Cards puts out a price guide for all cigarette cards not just soccer cards, so that's a good place to start: http://www.murraycards.com/books/bookcat2012.aspx

There's also a website dedicated to Huddersfield Town cards over the years and there are pictures dating back to the early 1900's:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger.pashby/

If I had to guess, there are maybe around 50 different soccer card sets that date prior to 1920. Anyone else have any guesses? I'll try to put a list together from my various sources. There's more than you might think.

Side note re: Soccer Flags - these were put out by DC Thomson in "The Skipper" comic books in 1933. I believe there are about 64 in the set. Not sure if they were issued in sheets but based on the size of each flag (small), my guess is there were sheet supplements in a few consecutive issues.

bijoem

06-28-2012, 09:50 AM

great thread!

keep them coming!

esehombre

06-28-2012, 02:10 PM

Extremely tough Swedish issue and Ademir's only known card.

wake.up.the.echoes

06-28-2012, 10:27 PM

Very cool vintage soccer cards. Keep 'em coming!

On a side note, any idea, if you were to do a type collection, kind of like people do in baseball cards, how many sets might there be for 1900-1920?

That's a great question! I would love to know the answer. My gut tells me that 50 might be a tad high, but I would love to try and figure it out. I know that between 1920 and world war 2 (let's say 1940 as a good round number) there were 100's of sets issued from all over the world. A majority of the pre-1920 sets I have collected types from were issued in the UK, with the exception of the 3rd series Felix Potin cards that were issued in France c1921. As far as cards issued between 1920 and 1940, I have found examples from many countries such as France, Australia, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Germany, to name but a few. I recently moved, so I don't have access to my cards at the moment. But from memory, I think I have collected examples from 100s of different sets. I'll have to count again when I unpack.

Ray Van

06-29-2012, 04:10 PM

Here's a list I compiled from the book "Half Time, Football and the Cigarette Card 1890-1940". In all there are 58 sets listed from pre-1920. Not all of these sets contain strictly soccer cards, some are general topics that include a selected number of soccer players (e.g. Ogdens). I tried to stay away from sets that contain only 1 card somewhat related to soccer, i.e. cards that only depict the game, not actual players. Also note that these are just the cigarette card sets ... there were also sets put out by food manufacturers and magazine/comic book makers, though those may have been post-1920. Anyway, this is hopefully a good start.

And then of course there were the Baines, Sharpes, etc cards. These are not mine (they are from the Leslie Millman collection or other locations from the internet) but are the holy grail for me: early Newton Heath and Manchester United cards.

wake.up.the.echoes

06-30-2012, 05:36 AM

Awesome list! Thanks for posting that!
Here's a list I compiled from the book "Half Time, Football and the Cigarette Card 1890-1940". In all there are 58 sets listed from pre-1920. Not all of these sets contain strictly soccer cards, some are general topics that include a selected number of soccer players (e.g. Ogdens). I tried to stay away from sets that contain only 1 card somewhat related to soccer, i.e. cards that only depict the game, not actual players. Also note that these are just the cigarette card sets ... there were also sets put out by food manufacturers and magazine/comic book makers, though those may have been post-1920. Anyway, this is hopefully a good start.

I just picked up a few of the "flag" cards that are not already stuck onto pins.

Copa7

07-20-2012, 08:28 PM

While Britain issued many sets of soccer cards prior to 1920, the explosion of international interest begins after the 1924 Olympics. South American issues and Continental European issues begin to increase.

So the key dates are from 1924 to 1938 - until the advent of the Second World War.

Note: there is a noticeable drop of any issues surrounding the First World War (1914-1918). Production begins in earnest from the UK by 1920 again.

I suspect there are many issues still undiscovered around the world :D

thanks very much! i'm very happy with them. now to decide what im going after next :)

my new-found obsession was sparked by a couple articles i read online a few weeks ago. the article spoke of how collecting these cards really hasn't caught on in the united states. the articles pointed out that if/when it DOES catch on in the U.S. the prices could quickly skyrocket because some of these older footballer cards are pretty scarce.

after i got the set of churchmans delivered i remembered that in one of those articles they named a certain set that may become more valuable because there were only 50,000 sets produced. so i scoured the net to find the article again to see exactly what that set was. i had not realized it the first time i saw it, but it that article was printed in 1990!!!